yet the yields for recent years are much above the 

 average. These are scattered exceptions. The 

 evidence is overwhelming that, in general, the 

 single-crop system, if continued very long, means 

 ruin. 



Mention should be made of "succession crop- 

 ing," as practised by market gardeners especially. 

 \y setting out plants from hotbeds, by inter- 

 planting and by very high culture, they are able to 

 take three or four different crops from the same 

 land in a single season. The value of the crops 

 removed in one year by skilled market gardeners 

 often reaches astonishing figures. One Massa- 

 chusetts gardener is reported to have secured a net 

 profit of $2,000 an acre, in 1906. The chief aim 

 of the market gardener is to keep the land busy 

 all the time. He depends little upon the natural 

 fertility of the soil, but mostly upon the very 

 large amounts of manures and fertilisers that 

 he uses, so his rotation is chosen for its 

 economic advantages, rather than for the main- 

 tenance of fertility. 



SELLING FERTILITY 



The maintenance of fertility is a larger and 

 broader problem than how to utilise home re- 

 sources to advantage, and how to buy fertilisers 

 economically. The farmer should ask himself, 

 "How mucn fertility am I selling from my farm 

 each year ?" The soil is a great bin of plant food 

 from which we draw a small supply each year. 

 It is not like a bin of wheat to be drawn on each 

 year until exhausted, because it is constantly re- 

 ceiving new food from the decay of plants, weather- 

 ing of stones and other sources. But cropping 



